Data rates in modern integrated circuits can reach 5 gigabits per second and beyond. At these data rates, jitter can become a significant issue for some products such as products compliant with the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express standard, as well as others. Many standards define tests and set limits for jitter at a certain bit error rate (BER). More specifically, jitter tolerance can be evaluated by measuring BER. In PCI Express, for example, a typical BER having an order of 10−12 is acceptable. Conventionally, measuring BER typically requires specially designed test equipment.
The drawings, schematics and diagrams are illustrative and not intended to be limiting, but are examples of embodiments of the invention, are simplified for explanatory purposes, and are not drawn to scale.